Colostrum is fluid produced by the mammary glands of mammals in late stage of pregnancy, such as just prior to giving birth, and sometimes even after pregnancy. Colostrum is the first nutritional liquid that comes out of the breast during lactation. Colostrum has higher protein content than ordinary milk, and contains antibodies to protect the newborn against disease. This highly nutritional liquid is packed with antibodies and other immune enhancing substances and is thus very important for healthy new born development. Colostrum is essentially newborn's first food, and helps the newborn transition to consumption of mature milk. Thus, it is important that colostrum be fed to newborns after birth.
Colostrum is produced at a very slow rate of several milliliters per hour and generally requires some form of pumping and or hand expression to cause it to exit the breast. In the first few days after birth, it is extremely important to breastfeed a newborn at least 8-12 times each 24 hours, and more often is even better. This allows the baby to get all the benefits of the colostrum and also stimulates production of a plentiful supply of mature milk.
Collection of colostrum is difficult, due to the small amount of volume produced, and existing breast milk pumps are not designed for the higher viscosity colostrum and/or the small volumes of colostrum produced and expressed from the breast. Besides pumps for breast milk, the generally accepted practice is to use whatever container is available to collect the colostrum. This could be a spoon, small cup, or small vial. Usually all of these containers require transfer to another container for administering (such as a syringe). This transfer of material leads to loss of colostrum when every precious drop counts.
Various techniques may be used to provide colostrum to newborn. For example, a medicine cup or a plastic spoon may be used to collect the colostrum from the mother's breast(s). In some cases, the collected colostrum is then transferred to a syringe, which is then used to administer the colostrum to the newborn. In other cases, the colostrum is administered to the baby directly from the cup or spoon.
In the case of humans, in certain situations, the newborn may be separated from the mother immediately after birth. For example, the newborn may need to be treated right after birth, such as due to premature birth, infection, or other medical conditions. In such cases, the mother would not be able to directly feed the newborn from her breasts. Other cases, such as maternal pain, newborn inability to effectively suck, etc., often prevent direct breast feeding in the early postpartum stage. Also, a mother may choose not to directly breastfeed the newborn, and may elect, instead, to use a device for administering the colostrum to the newborn.
Generally, the currently used techniques and devices for collecting and administering colostrum have a number of drawbacks. First, the current techniques involve expressing the colostrum into a first container, and then using a second, separate device, such as a syringe, to remove the colostrum from the first container and dispense it to the newborn. This process exposes the colostrum to air and thus possible germ contact, is inconvenient for mothers, and typically wastes at least some amount of colostrum in the transfer process. Second, the current techniques generally involve expressing colostrum into a relatively large container, such as a plastic cup or breast pump bottle. Colostrum is naturally produced in very small volumes, but mothers trying to express colostrum may often get discouraged when the colostrum appears to be incredibly small-volume relative to a large container. In summary, the current techniques do not work well for many nursing mothers and often cause a woman to give up on breast feeding during the first few days of a newborn's life.
Therefore, it would be desirable to provide methods, devices and systems for collecting colostrum from a breast and storing and/or dispensing the colostrum. Ideally, these methods, devices and systems would be easy to use and not intimidating to mothers. The methods, devices and systems would also ideally transfer colostrum from breast to newborn in an efficient way, so that very little colostrum is lost in the process.